Sunday, September 24, 2017

Just hours before Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe landed in New York City to attend the 72nd United Nations General Assembly, there was a protest demonstration demanding an end to the 16 year old sanctions imposed by the United States. Sanctions were imposed after President Mugabe took a nationalist approach to land reform by taking land from white farm owners and returning them to black farmers.

Over one hundred pro-Mugabe supporters marched through the streets in a protest demonstration led and organized by the December 12th Movement International Secretariat, a non-governmental organization with consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council. “President Robert Mugabe and the people of Zimbabwe have consistently fought for political and economic independence,” Spokesman Omowale Clay continues, “control of their land is fundamental. These illegal sanctions infringe on their national sovereignty.”

Friday, June 23, 2017

Less than two weeks left with the Obama presidency, members
of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) discussed their plans to be more
aggressive with the incoming president, Donald Trump. Well, after just six
months of Trump being in office the CBC has seen enough as CBC Chairman Rep.Cedric Richmond (D-LA) rejected the president’s invitation to meet with him at
the White House. In his letter to the president and in subsequent media
interviews, Rep. Richmond outlined specific concerns around the Trump
administration’s plans to dismantle healthcare, resurrect the drug war,
disregard consent decrees, and implement billion dollars in cuts to Pell
Grants. The CBC Chair also reminded the
president of his failure to respond to outreach to him of eight letters and a
policy report submitted during their first meeting back in March. “Through an objective assessment, we have
seen no evidence that your administration acted on our calls for action, and we
have in fact witnessed steps that will affirmatively hurt black communities,”
wrote Rep. Richmond. In the letter as well as in a number of media interviews
explaining their decision, the CBC Chair dismissed the would-be meeting as a
“social gathering”.

I think we are clear on what the CBC does not want but what
they do want and the path to get there is not as equally clear. This is disturbing particularly considering
their first meeting with the president back in March was viewed as “productive”
and “frank” with a commitment for more regularly scheduled meetings to discuss
policy issues. So the first – if not,
obvious – question is what exactly is being accomplished by not sitting with
the president to address the issues and concerns they’ve outlined in their letters and policy paper? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to meet with the
president to discuss these critical issues?
Which brings us to the next question, what is their next move - or in
other words what is their Plan B? Well they did submit an alternative federal budget for the FY2018 as they’ve always done since 1981 with little fanfare.
But realistically, what are the chances that a Republican majority in Congress
will act or much less debate the merits of the CBC’s alternative budget?

This apparent public display of defiance by the CBC actually
raises more concerns about their effectiveness and, yes their relevance. For
eight years, they served with a muted voice while providing a protective shield
against Republican attacks on President Obama. Equally troubling was their
refusal to endorse one of their own, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md) for the open
Senate seat in Maryland. And then we learned about their ties to corporate
interests during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Authors of the CBC Report Card 2016, Glen Ford and Patrice
Johnson brings into question the CBC’s leadership with an extensive analysis of
ten key votes between September 2015 and September 2016. Their report states the following: “What the
CBC Monitor Report Cards bring into focus is that the Black Caucus is simply an
appendage of Democratic leadership in the House. It has no independent
existence or policy, and is therefore not a leadership institution for Black
America. Rather, it is the Black face of the Democratic Party. Only about
one-third of its members (the 14 that voted against the internet “terror” bill,
last December, for example) are willing to break with their party on occasion.”

for

In his letter to the president, Rep. Richmond left the door
open for the President to invite individual CBC members for future meetings
with him and cabinet officials.

Discussion Question:

Should individual members of the CBC
pursue individual meetings with the president? What plan of action should the
CBC pursue in this age of Trump?

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

The South Carolina primary was to
be a test of black vote for both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders – and the
black vote lost.Despite Hillary
Clinton’s commanding win in South Carolina with record turnout from black
voters, the 2016 election cycle is slowly shaping up to be yet another lost opportunity
– another disappointment. Exit poll data shows blacks made up 61% of the electorate,
voted for Clinton 84%-16% while 82% came from black men and 89% from black
women.

There continues to be an
obsession with the black vote by the Democratic Party as black voters still have yet to realize the magnitude of their vote. The exit data shows a lock
step approach largely driven by whether Hillary Clinton is “electable” or if
she’s the “lessor of two evils”.An
approach that sidelines the black voter unable to build any leverage.So what goes unnoticed is the spectacle the
2016 primaries have become that’s largely driven by two critical issues for the
black voter.The very public display of
Clinton’s naked pursuit of the black vote on one hand and on the other hand, a
base of black voters whose allegiance to the Clinton campaign shows no signs of
eroding.

Monday, November 24, 2014

While
the 2014 elections showed Democrats their difficulties in defeating Republicans,
the elections also revealed the problem the Democratic Party has in appealing
to their white constituents. The Democrats now find themselves in a very precarious
position as they find a way to put together a message that resonates with the
white as well as the black voter. Let’s consider for a moment the 2014 exit poll, particularly the questions about race relations. For example, 40% said race relations in the country had stayed about the same in the
last few years. 38% said they had gotten worse while 20% said they’ve gotten
better. Certainly no surprise here but let’s consider remarks made by the Congressional
Black Caucus Chairperson, Marcia Fudge
(D-OH) when she stated that Democrats lost the white Southerners due in part to racism. “Democrats
lost Senate control because we failed to mobilize young voters across racial
and regional spectrums. We failed to persuade Southern voters to hold true to
core Democratic values. We lost because the Hispanic community was
insufficiently motivated. We lost because of ideological differences within the
Democratic Party and with our Administration. We lost because our party has, to
some extent, lost white Southerners due in part to the race of our President.
We lost because the Supreme Court decisions in Citizens United and McCutcheon allowed a select few to subvert
the political process with secret, unlimited money. We lost because of
gerrymandering in our state redistricting processes. We lost because of our
continuing problem with a clear and compelling message that would encourage
voters to stay with us.Let the talking
heads do what they do best: talk. But let’s be very clear in our analyses of
the 2014 midterm elections. African Americans showed up. So don’t blame us! A review of the
2014 exit poll data verifies Rep. Fudge’s statement as the data indicates that
while voter turnout for Hispanics and Blacks increased, the voter turnout for
Whites went down, and overall turnout was quite low.